So we have a Dodge Viper racing a Ferrari 355 on a mountain road. The Viper passes the 355, starts to go around a turn, and the brakes lock up. This tends to be one of those things you don’t want to happen, particularly when you’re traveling at high speeds on a road named “Deadman’s Road.”

The Viper (as you may have expected) flies off the side of the cliff, tumbles a time or two, then lands on it’s wheels, nary injuring it’s driver. Not something you see every day. And no, you can’t go use this as an excuse on your wife for a reason to go buy a Viper. “But Hunny, look how safe it is, it fell 100ft off a cliff and the driver was perfectly fine!”

Video after the jump: Continue Reading…

First let’s get the obvious out of the way: Gumpert is pretty funny name, and the Apollo is not the most esthetically pleasing of cars

OK, now that that’s done, seems that the fine folk at Gumpert have added a hybrid drive train to their already prodigiously powered Apollo and are going to race the darn thing at this year’s Nurburgring 24 hour race.

Good for them.

Racing is the best way to prove an engineering concept. It’s also the best way to get the bugs worked out of an engineering concept. And not only that, it’s a great way to sell new engineering concepts to the general public.

I know, hybrids have been more or less accepted by the public at large (except for the knuckle-draggers that believe global warming is some sort of a scam), but what the general public does not see hybrids as is fun or the least bit performance oriented.

The best way to cure that: Racing.

And a good way to go about that is to add a hybrid system to a car that already cranks out 630hp from its twin-turbo V8, put it in the very capable hands of former F1 driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen & longtime DTM racer Dirk Muller and let the beast out on the Nurburgring .

It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out, and not just results-wise.

What used to be the land of Curt, Steve, Terry ‘The Toad’ and John Milner (owner of the fastest car in the valley) now has another distinction piled upon it … yes that’s right, Modesto California is the number one spot for stolen cars in the U. S. of A.

How did this happen?

Good question … for one thing, I notice in that Stockton is number 4 on the list, meaning there’s something up in the Central Valley.

Other than that, I’ve got no real answers …

There’s a press release after the jump that gives a some good ideas for those of you worried about loosing your car (or perhaps those of you that live in The Central Valley).

Continue Reading…

I’ve mentioned these, er, decorations before, and it looks like they’re in the news again.

Seems that paragon of jurisprudence and rational thought, Florida, thinks that having a pair of these on the hitch of your truck is a bad idea. As a matter of fact, if you scoff at this law, and continue to display your Truck Nutz, the state now sees fit to ticket you for $60.

If you see fit to yak on your cell phone while eating a burger and simultaneously “disciplining” your kids in the back seat, Florida is OK with that. But Truck Nutz? No, those are bad.

The first thing this makes me think of is this:

“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech … ”

To me, this is a clear cut issue of freedom of expression and prior restraint, and all this law is waiting for is for someone to bring it up in court so it can get (deservedly) thumped down.

I know, I know, expressing what?

Look, what ever it is you’re trying to get across by putting something as demonstrably idiotic as this on your truck, I don’t know. Obviously, you’ve got a lot more issues to deal with than some smart-aleck in a car blog is going to help you with … but you know what? I don’t care. If this is how you choose to express yourself, I’m fine with it.

That reminds me of something else:

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
— Thomas Jefferson

Well whata-ya know, Danica Patrick finally won an Indy car race.

I know this because I read it on the internet-tubes. Normally I would have known this because I obsessively watch Indy car races (as well as all F1 races and the 24 hours Le Mans) but this time I missed it.

For starters, the race was at Motegi Japan, meaning there are dateline issues to deal with (i.e. it ends up on the TV on a Saturday rather than Sunday). Then the race was rained out, and I had no idea when it was going to be rescheduled … turns out it was the equivalent of 3 in the morning for my local.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, since I get up around then for F1 races anyway … but no one saw fit to tell me about it, so I missed out.

So there you have it … Danica finally breaks through, and once all the slack-jawed knuckle-draggers stop the ignorant complaining (my favorite misogynist comment so far: “SHE ONLY WON BECAUSE OF LUCKY PIT STRATEGY. … I can tell you it had very little to do with skill and everything to do with luck. … Sure it doesn’t matter where you were for anything but the final lap but SHE WAS MID-PACK ALL RACE.” (Boy, the world is going to be a hard place for dorks like him, huh?)) Danica can get on with being a racer instead of a girl-racer.

Now if she starts winning a bunch and really starts scaring the boys, we can elevate her into Michele Mouton territory.